wakebird » Calvary

Pray for Me if You Read This

wakebird — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 14:42:00 +0000

I am sitting in my office at 6:45am right now and I got here 25 minutes ago. I like to get to church really early on the days I preach. I look over my notes and my PowerPoint one last time. I practice my “talk” one more time out loud. I love the method of out-loud practicing. Some don’t. I think it’s a total personal preference thing.

I am about to spend some time in prayer and then practice a bit and then I can go be a part of all the ministry preparation that takes place before everyone shows up. After I’m ready to speak mentally and spiritually, I like to stay busy and not think about it. Usually I will have to make a trip to the restroom. I have done this pretty much before every “talk” I have given for the past 15 years. The body has strange reactions to public “performance.”

So anyways, please pray for me if you read this. Pray that God would speak through me and that my flawed and faulty memory would work better than it usually does.

The Student Ministries Office Video

wakebird — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Victor finally put this up on his site so I could grab it. This is a video that some of our college students made for our College Ministry Christmas Party that had a theme of The Office tv show. It’s a full 20 minute episode of The Office based on our Student Ministries at Calvary Church. I “act” quite a bit in this piece. It’s funny and embarrassing. Enjoy. Tell me what you think. It’s in two parts to make it easier to view.

New Job

wakebird — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:18:00 +0000

Well, it’s official. We announced to our Calvary Church staff today that I am moving into a new position. Starting sort of now and officially in January, I am the Executive Pastor of Ministry at Calvary Church. Michael is the Executive Pastor of Administration. If you’re not in ministry, it’s like Michael is the CFO and I am the COO of the company under the CEO/Senior Pastor.

This is a huge change for me. I will be overseeing the majority of the ministries of Calvary Church including having a level of oversight of the school and preschool. We have something like 150 employees in the church, school, and preschool. So this is a big responsibility. I feel like this is the kind of position that God has created me for. It’s going to be a challenge with preaching still in our Elevation service about 15 times per year, giving some direct oversight to Mens Ministry, and overseeing Children’s, Students, Young Adults, Outreach, Assimilation, Counseling, Recovery, Small Groups, Adult Ed, Seniors, and some other ministries.

I also can recognize that I am on the younger side for a position like this. But I know that’s part of why I am in this position – to bring a fresh and new approach to ministry at Calvary Church. Please pray for me and for a ton of other changes taking place at Calvary.

One of the biggest aspects of this change for me is that I won’t be a “Youth Pastor” anymore. My identity (for better or for worse) has been pretty tied into being a youth pastor. It’s odd to be on the other side. I think I will be grieving that for a little while.

Church Should Be Simple

wakebird — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:45:00 +0000

I have been reading Simple Church lately and it’s a good book. We do make church too complicated. We need to simplify what we do and be willing to cut programs to make the ministry we do more effective. Making disciples is the key. How to do it? Get people to connect with God and each other, grow in their faith and knowledge of God, and then reach out to others in your own community and around the world. That’s what makes sense to me. I know there’s a lot of opinions on this. This seems basic and sort of “duh” in some ways, but it’s so easy to make church about programs – more, more, more! Simple Church = effective church. Any thoughts?

Strength Themes

wakebird — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:53:00 +0000

I have done the Strengthfinders test from Now Discover Your Strengths or Living Your Strengths a couple times now. We have been discussing them with our VP3 group at church lately. Here are mine:
Responsibility – this means I feel a deep sense of ownership in the things I do and I feel personally responsible for making things happen.
Significance – this means I want to feel significant in what I do and that I want to do things that have significant meaning. It also has a dark side of needing to be significant or feel important.
Belief – this is where I have to do things that I feel a strong sense of calling about. I have to believe in something for me to succeed in it.
Maximizer – this means I’m gifted at taking something good and making it great rather than starting something new or rescuing something that is in the dumps.
Relator – this means I connect really well with a smaller group of people, but I’m not as good at working the room or talking to people I don’t know.

We had a good time yesterday seeing what each others strengths were and how we all relate to each other through them. Who shares strengths? Who has strengths that no one else has?

What are your strengths? What do you think of mine? Agree/Disagree?

One Service Sunday

wakebird — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:49:00 +0000

Today is what we call a One Service Sunday at Calvary Church. We cancel all children’s, youth, and adult Sunday School classes and have everybody in the big Worship Center for one service at 9:30am. I don’t have any responsibilities in today’s service. I will show up a bit early and Bea and I will do some greeting, but other than that I am a “normal” church-goer.

I love that I am still sitting on my couch in my pajamas at almost 8:00am.

It’s been good to have a restful few days. I feel like this is going to be a big week or two coming up at church.

Preaching Today

wakebird — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 13:53:00 +0000

I’m preaching today in Elevation on 2 Samuel 7. Pray for me if you think of it. The service is from 10:45-12noon.

So Tired

wakebird — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:36:00 +0000

I have felt like my eyes have been super heavy all week and at any moment I could lay down and sleep. Last week was pretty crazy and I think my body is just tired out from it and Ella has been waking up a bit lately in the middle of the night (I’m not complaining though because Bea goes in to get her back to sleep about 95% of the time).

I preach again in Elevation this Sunday and I’m looking forward to it, but it’s weird when the last Sunday was so awesome that it takes some effort to get pumped up for this weekend. It’s a different focus of a message with God saying no to David about building the temple, but then God says that He will build a house for David. I am also leading worship tonight for Jr High for their BARF Night which is an outreach focused Wednesday night. We are going to rock hard!

I have a lot on my mind with waiting for a response about the house, wanting Moses back soon, thinking about my sermon, thinking creatively about vision and branding for the church, waiting for decisions to be made about the consultant process, and then dealing with some volunteer staff issues at church.

So far, So good

wakebird — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:57:00 +0000

It’s been a good day so far. I was pretty nervous about today. I didn’t feel as prepared for preaching in Elevation and teaching at our staff meeting than I would have liked to be. But I got to church really early this morning and spent about two hours tightening things up and finishing some stuff that I couldn’t get done during the week with all the meetings I was in.

I thought Elevation was amazing today. We talked about 2 Samuel 6 which is the passage where David dances in an “undignified” way before the Lord. I felt like I was really able to “preach it” today and I enjoyed being on stage. There were tearful moments, funny moments, and “gospel preacher” moments. Until I listen to it I’m not sure how my clarity, flow, or delivery was, but I like that the crowd (and myself) were laughing, crying, clapping, and passionately worshiping.

It was a strange morning in a vocabulary sense. Victor said from stage that he felt like he was “on crack” because he was so hyper. Then Dave quoted a lady from the fire relief crew that said “Does it look like I know what the hell I’m doing?” I actually liked it.

Then the staff meeting with a seminar on how to do youth counseling went really well. I’m proud that we are equipping our staff with how to minister to their kids. I was a little disappointed that only about 60% of our staff was there. It must have been the Patriots/Colts game. They should have DVR’d it like I did. I’m watching it now. 4 minutes left with the Colts winning 20-17. GO COLTS!! Hold on.

Big Week

wakebird — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:27:00 +0000

This is going to be a big week.
Monday – Working on my sermon for Elevation this Sunday. Working on big volunteer staff meeting where I teach on the second point of our Student Ministries Mission Statement – “Restore the Hurting.” Go looking at houses. We are going to try and get back into a home this next month.
Tuesday – Morning staff meetings. Sermon prep. Then a meeting with the Sr Pastor and other Teaching Pastors about upcoming sermon series. He asked us to bring our thoughts and creativity to the meeting.
Wednesday – Sermon Prep. Big Halloween alternative event at our church called “Light the Night.”
Thursday – Vision Meeting. 4 hour Elevation Brainstorm Meeting. Sermon Prep.
Friday – Sermon Prep for this week and next week. Work at AIDS Services Foundation for three hours.
Saturday – relax, probably do some house hunting or offer making.
Sunday – Preach in Elevation. Teach at Volunteer Staff Meeting. Lead Lighthouse (small group).

This is going to be a big week with a lot of mental challenges.